HUD Releases 2015 American Housing Survey

HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of the 2015 American Housing Survey focusing on 25 metropolitan areas across the country. The data includes detailed information on everything from monthly housing costs to hunger and neighborhood characteristics including crime and the prevalence of rodents and cockroaches.

The national report, released in November, focused on nationwide data, while the recent release reflects data on homes and households in 25 large metropolitan areas. The 25 metropolitan areas in the 2015 AHS include New York City-Newark-Jersey City; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach; Atlanta; Boston; San Francisco-Oakland; Phoenix; Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California; Detroit; Seattle; Denver; Portland, Oregon-Vancouver, Washington; Pittsburgh; Cincinnati; Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas; Cleveland; Milwaukee; Memphis; Raleigh, North Carolina; and New Orleans.

For the first time in its 42-year history, the American Housing Survey included questions on food security status, which allowed HUD to assign households a “food security status” score. Using these categories, households were classified as having “low” or “very low” food security, which is commonly known as being “food insecure.” The survey includes the following findings:

• Households living in the metros areas of Los Angeles and Miami reported spending 30 percent of their monthly income on housing costs, while families living in Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle spent 21 percent.
• Families living in the metro area of Portland, Oregon, spent 23 percent, while Pittsburg residents spent 18 percent of their monthly income on housing costs.
• In 2015, approximately 901,000 households (12.4 percent) in the New York City metro area were experiencing food insecurity, while over 100,000 families (5.4 percent) living in the Boston area were experiencing food insecurity, the least in the largest metro areas.
• 15.9 percent of households in Detroit reported the most exposure to first-hand tobacco inside their home in the largest metro areas, while San Francisco reported the least, at 4.6 percent.
• Nearly 17 percent of households in the Boston metro area reported signs of mice or rats in their home within the last 12 months, and Phoenix residents reported significantly less, at 3.4 percent.
• 38 percent of households in the Houston metro area reported the most sightings of cockroaches in their home within the last 12 months, while Seattle residents reported less than 1 percent.
• 11 percent of households in the Los Angeles area reported their neighborhood has a lot of serious crime, while Atlanta-area households reported 4.5 percent.
• 26.2 percent of residents in the Los Angeles area reported a lot of petty crime in their neighborhood, while D.C. area households reported nearly 14 percent.